We were working for a client that was looking to keep logistics costs to a minimum. The containers, which had arrived from Jebel Ali according to CIF terms on a direct carrier, had been lying at the carrier-nominated CFS. The containers had mismatched seals that delayed the entire customs clearance procedure. The large number of containers made it difficult to avoid large detention/demurrage costs.

The recent ban of the Physical Waiver process by Customs meant we’d have had to de-stuff the 60 Port Sudan containers, unload and store cargo at the CFS for examination, and re-stuff the cargo into export containers. This would have incurred a much higher CFS cost than our client was willing to pay.

The cargo we were handling were iron sponges loaded in 2 MTS Jumbo Bags (which were not in good condition from the loading/unloading process). The stuffing and movement of 60 containers worth of cargo was also burdened with heavy monsoon rains. As the cargo was prone to damage from rain water, we were forced to bring the stuffing process to a temporary halt.

We also managed to do customs clearance on short notice thanks to our customs broker manager who worked day and night to supervise the timely delivery of the 18 India containers.

Despite the recent ban, we managed to secure a special physical waiver approval from customs authorities and spare our client a major cost for CFS storage of 60 containers.

To compensate for jumbo bags that were damaged due to cross loading and poor packaging, we arranged for two new jumbo bags to accommodate the goods of the 60 Port Sudan containers.

We put this plan into action as soon as the Monsoon rains had subsided and worked day and night to make up for lost time.